In New York, she worked as head of the Consumer’s League and commissioner of the New York State Department of Labor, appointed to the latter position in 1929 by New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt.

When Roosevelt became president of the United States in 1933, he named Perkins as his secretary of labor. As chairwoman of the President’s Committee on Economic Security, Perkins was instrumental in the formation of the Social Security Act of 1935.

Perkins died in 1965.

The headquarters of the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., constructed in 1974, was named the Frances Perkins Building six years later in her honor.